Viewing web content on electronic devices can be difficult because, in many instances, only a portion of an entire page is shown at a given moment. This makes the task of locating specific information on the page difficult, even if the user knows roughly where specific information is located in the content. Due to the content being larger than the screen, the user is forced to scroll around the document, hoping to find the correct portion of the content. Additionally, the context of information visible on the screen at any given moment can also be unclear due to the surrounding areas in the document not being visible to the user.
Although attempts have been made to address the problems associated with large content visualization on displays of electronic devices, each of these attempts have their own drawbacks. One conventional system implements a “split screen” method which provides two views to the document. One such system is entitled Thunderhawk and manufactured by Bitstream, Inc. However, this approach has the drawback of reducing the screen size for both views. However, this system does not automatically provide a transparent overview of the document during the scrolling process.
An article by Stuart Pook, Eric Lecolinet, Guy Vaysseix and Emmanuel Barillot entitled “Context and Interaction in Zoomable User Interfaces” from Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, p. 227, 231, May 2000 (Palermo, Italy) discloses the concept of providing a transparent overview of a document to the user. However, this system involves the use of such a transparent overview at all times, including when a user is staying in a single portion of the document and other times when such an overview is neither necessary nor desirable. This can make it more difficult for the user to view and work within the document.
On devices having larger screens, there are several conventional information visualization methods that provide both “focus and context”: a miniature frame view of the context is displayed in one area, while the readable content is displayed on another area. This solution has the drawback of the miniature frame view reserving some of the screen space such that the user cannot fully utilize the display area for viewing readable content.